Interactive television services enable consumers to be more closely involved in the television consumption experience. In general, interactive television services enable two-way communication with a consumer location (e.g., a household). For example, interactive television services enable a consumer to request information and to submit information from/to an interactive television distribution network. One implementation of an interactive television service is an internet protocol television (IPTV) service.
IPTV services provide television media content over a broadband network. In general, an IPTV provider receives media content from media content creators. The IPTV provider converts the media content into packetized digital media streams. The packetized digital media streams are distributed to consumer locations via an internet protocol (IP) multicast or an IP unicast. The consumer location includes a consumer device that receives the packetized digital media streams and converts the streams into media content suitable for display on a display device such as a television or computer. Because the consumer device communicates with the IPTV provider over an IP connection, the consumer device can easily transmit data back to the IPTV provider. In other words, the IPTV provider and the consumer device can engage in two-way communication.